SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF BULLYING BY MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS

This paper explores the social representations of bullying by middle school teachers. The study was carried out at a public municipal school located on Governor's Island, [Guanabara Bay, in the State] a large, populous district in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was selected because it is located in an area with a high incidence of violence. The following data gathering methods were used: observation of the school's daily life; focal group with 12 teachers who teach 6th to 9th grade classes, and conversational interviews with the same teachers. Crossing the analyses allowed the identification of a possible metaphor for the figurative nucleus of the social representation of bullying associated with adolescence: bullying is like an illness that needs medicine to be cured. However, teachers cannot do anything because the Statute of Children and Adolescents as well as the Custody Council (Children's Services) prevent them from taking up actions that might end bullying at school.